Complete and Perfect Each Other

"ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." -The Family: A Proclamation to the World

I watched a documentary made by ABC News that was super interesting about the difference between men and women. As men and women, we are different. It's not only the nurturing that affects us but it's always the nature of who we are. In most cases little girls are naturally more skilled verbally, sit up earlier than boys and later play with other children in social play. Boys tend to crawl sooner than girls, are more aggressive and later like to play with on their own and competitively.

We weren’t created to be the same as different genders. As Elder Bednar puts it, “The natures of male and female spirits complete and perfect each other, and therefore men and women are intended to progress together toward exaltation.” We are different not only physically but spiritually to provide the best environment for children.

Nature and nurture has been a question when it comes to male and female difference. But from research we know that men and women are born that way. It helps to have an eternal perspective and know that we existed before this life. Another topic that is questioned whether or not it stems from nature vs. nurture is homosexuality. This topic has always brought a lot of questions to my mind: If the whole Plan of Salvation is to have a family and be sealed to them for all eternity, then why are some people attracted to the same gender? People say that they are born that way, but how is that possible?

I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much. He wants us to succeed and to have joy on a daily basis. I know that He won’t plant within someone the very thing that isn’t a part of His plan. Homosexuality as well as dishonesty and envying are all things that individuals may struggle with but they are able to overcome those difficulties.

We know that we are affected by the things that happen in our lives, especially traumatic events that occurred in our childhood. From research done on homosexual men there are many childhood factors that contribute to homosexuality. Not every man that has homosexual feelings has had all of these happen to them, but these are some of the leading factors: a distant relationship with their father, wounded gender identity, chasing male identity, bullying, inappropriate touch and pornography. Here’s the link to the video by Family Watch International that explains these super well with details from therapists and men that have experienced same-sex attraction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJhyzqdzpnM

From research homosexuality has not been proven to be innate. Several research has been done to find that it is. They never found evidence to prove that homosexuality was innate but found some statistics that had small connections. Several have taken those small statistics as fact that homosexuality is innate and that has been publicized, but that truth. It’s interesting to see in the world today that research gets twisted to form to people’s desired results.  

What a blessing it is to have the gospel and research that has been done to help us understand these topics. I’m grateful that we know that we have a loving Heavenly Father that wants us to be happy and understand the hardships that we and our friends go through.